The "unidentified game from your childhood" thread

[Atariboy]

Did you ever find this out? I suddenly had a flashback to playing the first game you describe, and your post is the only evidence I can find that this game even existed! For some reason I'm remembering the character you played as not having arms. Am I way off base?

 

We can do this!

I don't remember what the character looked like. Just the general layout of the overworld and the Zelda style overhead perspective.

 

I've about exhausted everything I could think of to track it down. Probably have logged about 4 or 5 hours over the years of searching online trying to figure it out. If I ever do, I'll definitely let you know.

 

Hope you have better luck than I have so far.

[TheAtarianGuy]

Was this Hugo's House of Horrors?

YES! I think it was, thanks for helping me remember.

[0078265317]

What were space games made for 64. I don't remember it exactly. Small whit ship, black screen.

[dustfilledhobo]

When I was about 6 years old my family bought their first computer (1989). Unfortunately neither my parents nor I remember what type of computer it was. There was a selection screen with 26 games labeled A-Z. I'm hoping someone can help me identify game "R". This game had a top-down view of the floor plan of a house drawn very simple (possibly using only ascii characters). Your character was a smiley face and your objective (I think) was to solve a murder. I have searched the Internet for this game, but with only a few details it is hard to know what to search for. Here's what I've found so far:

 

Mystery House: I watched this walk thorough video and this game seems very similar to the game I'm looking for, but the graphics are a lot more advanced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiwHwPvIHBs

 

Snipes: This game has a similar look, but the objective of the game is different.

 

Any information will be greatly appreciated. I know that I didn't give you much info to work with, so I understand if this is impossible. Thanks.

[Uzumaki]

Trying to remember this C64 game. It was a strategy type game, like Shadowgate for NES. I can only remember a couple puzzles and solutions: in one room you had to start a fire in the fireplace to reveal a hidden item. In another scene you had to lead an animal (horse? mule? cow?) to a treadmill so it'd walk on it and start turning the belts and gears to get something inside running.

[+DZ-Jay]

I just read through the entire thread, what a cool discussion!

 

Anyway, I think I can help two guys here.

 

O.K. I got one.

The game I'm thinking of, I use to play at an older brothers house in '86, '87 on a what seemed maybe to be an Apple or C64.(Too young at the time to distinguish)

Can't remember exactly, just remember having to boot the game from what seemed like a multi-game floppy.

The games main character was maybe a penguin/polar bear, and I somewhat remember ice skating being involved? I used to call it Chilly Willy but I don't think thats the real title. Also, It was definately not Arctic Adventure as this game the sprites seemed much smaller and the view was not from behind.

One on One Larry Bird vs Dr. J was also on the list of games(if that helps).

Its been bugging me for years, sound familiar?

 

That sounds suspiciously like a game I had on the Intellivision called Thin Ice. You controlled a skating penguin and you had to "trap" seals and other baddies by skating around them to cut a block of ice and sink it. It's like a mixture of Qix and Pengo.

 

Perhaps it was cloned for the PC?

 

 

 

Wow, I can't name that game but it really reminds me of a game that I've always wanted to identify.

It was a platformer as well, non-scrolling if I remember. I was in a store that sold Atari and Commodore games so it was either Atari 800/C64 era or Atari ST/Amiga era (I think the latter based on the graphics being really detailed). The character you controlled looked like he was a robot or a guy in a slim spacesuit, wearing a helmet with a black faceplate and the a red uniform/spacesuit. I could never figure out the point of the game, I only remember walking the character up to a door and it sliding up to open.

 

Aha! that must be Space Quest! Part of the fun of the game was to see the absurd and funny ways that you could die, with the game giving you grotesque description of your death.

Edited June 16, 2014 by DZ-Jay

[rick hunt]

Trying to remember this C64 game. It was a strategy type game, like Shadowgate for NES. I can only remember a couple puzzles and solutions: in one room you had to start a fire in the fireplace to reveal a hidden item. In another scene you had to lead an animal (horse? mule? cow?) to a treadmill so it'd walk on it and start turning the belts and gears to get something inside running.

Time Tunnel is the game you're looking for.

[jfitzenr]

YES! I think it was, thanks for helping me remember.

 

I do realize this is post is a year old but I wanted to throw up the horns! I love Hugo! They made two sequels as well. The second game, Whodunit, was fun but was a bit too obtuse for me to really love as a kid. The third one was in a jungle and, for my money, was as good, or better, than any Sierra adventure game.

 

 

My post is a bit weird. It's not a game I ever owned, just I played it at my school. As a kid we started with Apple IIs, but then upgraded to a lab full of early Macs, and I *think* this must have been an early Mac game. It was "educational" somehow. I just remember you had to climb a snowy mountain, maybe solving trivia or something, and I think you threw snowballs at people/bad guys. I can't remember any details, it's barely on the cusp of my brain. Anybody help out?

[darksabre76]

I've been trying to figure out what game this is since I last played it so-many-years-ago. The thing is, I'm decently sure the game I have on mind is a MS-DOS game, however I'm not 100% sure.

 

So in the game, you figure out money-related math problems. If you correctly figure out '#' out of '#' problems you get to play a game within the game named 'Blackbeard's Treasure' or something. You play as a little man and you go about collecting coins that are scattered around a 2D maze, while Blackbeard's ghost (which can go through the walls of the maze) chases after you.

 

After a period of time (or after a certain number or coins are collected or something like that, I don't remember) special coins pop up that are a different color than the coins you're supposed to get, and give you bonus points if you get them before they dissapear again.

 

I also remember that after collecting all the coins, a 'door' opens at the bottom of the screen. When you exit the the maze through the door, a big skull (maybe with crossbones?) and the words 'Game Over' appear on the screen (It may be different, but again, I can't remember). Then it tells you that Blackbeard returned to his grave or something like that, and you start doing money problems again.

 

If anyone can find out the name of this game, I'd love to know- I've been wanting to play it again for over ten years!!

 

 

@CTF@

 

Gah, I just started looking up games from my childhood and was looking for this exact game. All I can remember is "Blackbeard's Ghost" and the stuff you mentioned. Any luck finding it?

[c_t_f]

 

Gah, I just started looking up games from my childhood and was looking for this exact game. All I can remember is "Blackbeard's Ghost" and the stuff you mentioned. Any luck finding it?

Sadly, no, and no additional information or screenshots either... I'm thrilled to hear that someone remembers it though! At least we know that it's exists, somewhere!

 

 

@CTF@

[Azirithdorr]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to remember a game I played on my Apple II. It was, I would think, considered an action adventure game. It was mainly a side-scroller, but you could also go up and down ladders. In the game you spend a good majority of your time underground in caves. The object of the game was to collect somewhere around 5-6 objects that I remember as orbs or eggs ( probably orbs ) via exploring. Along the way, you would kill monsters with a bow, I believe, and had a very limited supply of arrows you could replenish. The graphics were very similiar to Captain Goodnight and featured a smooth running animation for the main character, but were overall simplistic. One of the baddies I remember from the game was a stationary killer plant a la Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors - I think it could shoot fireballs.

 

Games it was sort of like include: Conan, Lode Runner, and Captain Goodnight.

 

Thanks for reading everyone! I love the idea of this forum :>

Edited January 14, 2016 by Azirithdorr

[Azirithdorr]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to remember a game I played on my Apple II. It was, I would think, considered an action adventure game. It was mainly a side-scroller, but you could also go up and down ladders. In the game you spend a good majority of your time underground in caves. The object of the game was to collect somewhere around 5-6 objects that I remember as orbs or eggs ( probably orbs ) via exploring. Along the way, you would kill monsters with a bow, I believe, and had a very limited supply of arrows you could replenish. The graphics were very similiar to Captain Goodnight and featured a smooth running animation for the main character, but were overall simplistic. One of the baddies I remember from the game was a stationary killer plant a la Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors - I think it could shoot fireballs.

 

Games it was sort of like include: Conan, Lode Runner, and Captain Goodnight.

 

Thanks for reading everyone! I love the idea of this forum :>

**Solved** Woot, thanks to some hints, the game name was found: Black Magic ( Datasoft 1987 )

[Nebulon]

Well this one would actually be from my teenage years...

 

An Amiga OCS game:

 

- platformer

- main character carried a long thin hammer

- enemies looked like tall devil-wraith things and could teleport (they looked kind of like the Flash when they moved -- with motion blur lines behind them)

 

I recall a lot of reds and oranges in the colors. It looked kind of like he was supposed to be fighting his way through hell.

 

Sure wish I could find out the name of that one.

[carlsson]

Up to four players take it in turns setting off in a compass direction and continue moving until they hit an empty square, collecting Blue and Gold crystals on the way and the aim of the game was to amass points while trying to trap your opponents into a small area, thereby blocking them from collecting further crystals.

 

My question is, can anyone name the original Ti-99/4a game which I'd based my ZX Spectrum code on?

While I don't know much about TI-99/4A games, your ZX Spectrum screenshot reminds me a lot about Harvester for the VIC-20.

 

It doesn't seem a game by this name is available on the TI, but either Pixel Productions copied the TI game too, or they all have another, common denominator.

[UKRetrogamer]

While I don't know much about TI-99/4A games, your ZX Spectrum screenshot reminds me a lot about Harvester for the VIC-20.

 

It doesn't seem a game by this name is available on the TI, but either Pixel Productions copied the TI game too, or they all have another, common denominator.

 

Thanks for this. It plays almost identically to my ZX Spectrum version; though mine has graphical improvements granted by the higher screen-resolution.

 

I THOUGHT I'd played it on a Ti-99/4a back on the day, but it WAS over 30 years ago!

 

Maybe it WAS the Vic-20 game I'd played (though someone on the Ti-99/4a section seems to remember a similar game on the Ti). I'm not sure if it was a type-in or not on the Ti; though again, my memory isn't what it used to be!

[UKRetrogamer]

Incidentally, if anyone would like to try my 1986 ZX Spectrum conversion of this game, it's available to play online at the archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/zx_Planet_Proton_1986_Your_Sinclair

[carlsson]

Given you used the same colour scheme as the VIC version, if there is a TI version as well, either it must predate 1982 or be a near identical copy of the VIC game. Also, Pixel Productions seem to have been an UK company that distributed some games on their own and others through Quicksilva, further reducing the selection to magazines before 1982 or an UK magazine covering the TI-99/4A in the time frame 1982-1986, as it seems unlikely to me that anyone in the US would've picked up a relatively obscure turn based VIC-20 game and made their own version as a type-in.

 

Interesting side note: The Trader Trilogy by Joe Gillespie, published by Pixel Productions for both ZX Spectrum, ZX-81 and VIC-20, comes preloaded on the new ZX Vega. It is remarked as a space trading game that has some similarities with Elite two years later, but of course not with the same 3D wireframe graphics.

 

Edit: I'm not sure if this is the same Joe Gillespie, but some boxes tick except for the fact the company should've been around in 1982 rather than 1989 unless he started a new one with the same name.

http://www.joegillespie.co.uk/about.html

Edited February 5, 2016 by carlsson

[darksabre76]

I have another one for the list of "what the heck was that". I remember this old DOS typing game that had a ton of different modes. The one I remember the best was one that put these asterisk- or star-shaped items on the screen that had the letter you needed to type in them. They would be somewhere randomly on the screen and you'd have to type as quickly as you could. I remember this fondly because my classmates and I (in the early 90's) would set it to the easiest level that only used J and K and then just hit the buttons as quickly as possible since you weren't penalized for incorrect letters, just how many you got right.

 

I remember it being colorful with each of the symbols being red or blue or something. It was definitely a black background though. Thanks for anyone who even thinks they remember!

[spacecadet]

Ok, this is driving me nuts for about the second time in six months - I found it the first time and then forgot/lost it again! It's even more frustrating when you know you found something before but then can't remember or duplicate the steps you took to do so.

 

This was mostly a text-based WWII aircraft carrier simulation that came out first for the Apple II but was then ported to pretty much every other system as well, and even got a sort of sequel (I read both of those things when I found it before). I think it was a turn-based game with a menu-driven interface where you could enter commands like "®efuel aircraft", "(A)ttack with fighters", "(S)cout enemy positions", "(D)efend fleet" and stuff like that. Once you made selections and ended the turn, it would say things like "40 fighters from the Yorktown attacked the Hyogo with torpedoes; 24 returned" or "The Yorktown has been bombed by fighters from the Kaga! No aircraft landings or takeoffs for 3 turns".

 

Sound familiar to anyone? It was one of those games that sounds really simple but I remember having hidden depth and addictiveness. I could have some of the actual details wrong, as far as the actual verbiage in the game, but it should be similar to that.

[JamesD]

Ok, this is driving me nuts for about the second time in six months - I found it the first time and then forgot/lost it again! It's even more frustrating when you know you found something before but then can't remember or duplicate the steps you took to do so.

 

This was mostly a text-based WWII aircraft carrier simulation that came out first for the Apple II but was then ported to pretty much every other system as well, and even got a sort of sequel (I read both of those things when I found it before). I think it was a turn-based game with a menu-driven interface where you could enter commands like "®efuel aircraft", "(A)ttack with fighters", "(S)cout enemy positions", "(D)efend fleet" and stuff like that. Once you made selections and ended the turn, it would say things like "40 fighters from the Yorktown attacked the Hyogo with torpedoes; 24 returned" or "The Yorktown has been bombed by fighters from the Kaga! No aircraft landings or takeoffs for 3 turns".

 

Sound familiar to anyone? It was one of those games that sounds really simple but I remember having hidden depth and addictiveness. I could have some of the actual details wrong, as far as the actual verbiage in the game, but it should be similar to that.

I've never played it, so I'm not sure it's a match... Carrier Command?

[spacecadet]

I've never played it, so I'm not sure it's a match... Carrier Command?

 

Close... but I found it again It was Carrier Force. And I *cannot* figure out how to play it again now that I've rediscovered it. I just keep sailing around and crashing all my planes into the ocean.

Edited December 18, 2016 by spacecadet

[Jim Pez]

what was the pac-man game used in national lampoons vacation ?

[retrorussell]

what was the pac-man game used in national lampoons vacation ?

One was the Coleco one (very common), and another was called "Epoch Man", which also served as a stopwatch and calendar! I actually own the latter, which I got from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo last year!

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Movies/Vacation.htm

[Jim Pez]

One was the Coleco one (very common), and another was called "Epoch Man", which also served as a stopwatch and calendar! I actually own the latter, which I got from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo last year!

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Movies/Vacation.htm

 

I was thinking about the one at the beginning of the movie on the computer.

[retrorussell]

 

I was thinking about the one at the beginning of the movie on the computer.

I guess I'd have to go back and watch it again.